History Buff

There's a lady here at the campground that is a fellow workcamper. She and her husband have worked here for the last 6 seasons. BUT they've been coming to Gettysburg since the 80's and both are history buffs. She drove me around G'burg today visiting some of the more important places giving me a personal guide service. 


Every state that participated in the civil war fighting here have the opportunity to put up monuments depicting the participants, where they camped/headquartered and fought.  There are over 3000 such stone, concrete, granite monuments here.  She took me down an alley, between two houses to some that probably are very seldom visited by the tour guides. 

We then went to O'Rourke's for lunch.  Keeping in mind my daughter's suggestion to eat out what you would not cook at home, I decided I was interested in Irish Beef Stew, Shepherd's Pie and the Meat and Mashed with Guinness gravy. I told the waitress to surprise me and she brought me the Meat(loaf) and Mashed. Very tasty. And, such a big amount of food I can have it as leftovers as well.  After lunch we went home with plan to go again next week. 

Who ya gonna call?

Well, if you're gonna spend any time in Gettysburg, PA, ya gotta deal with all the "ghost tours" around.  There's been those ghost hunting shows and other paranormal groups through here on almost a yearly basis claiming Gettyburg is one of the most haunted towns in America.  This may be true.  45000 men lost their lives in 3 days of fighting.  There has got to be some residual from all that carnage, even now, 151 years later.

Here at the campground we had one of the "guides" from a local ghost hunting company come out to tell ghost stories.  He told the same ones that are published in the multitude of printed flyers, booklets, info mags that abound here, so I wasn't too impressed sitting in a cold room watching some guy pace back and forth telling the same stories I had already heard or read.

There was one lady that was a 100% "there are ghosts here" believer and told her stories of her experiences with encounters with the ghosts. 

The guide held up his fancy little "spirit tester" which is some sort of electrical current reader that told us if there was a disturbance around us.  As a caveat though he did hold it near a cell phone and got the same blinking light response as he did when he asked if there was a spirit there with us. 

He also had a pair of "devining" rods and stood in front of us and asked the spirit if is was a man or woman, if they died or were killed in the civil war, yadda...yadda...yadda.  He then asked the audience if anyone wanted to try it out as well.

I raised my hand and he told me how to hold the rods (these looked like lengths of brass rods sitting in a skinny wooden cup that you held in your hands.  I told him as a Native American we don't usually communicate with the dead with hand held devices and would never ask some of the questions he asking them.  At first the rods kept turning around and pointing at me - I hadn't asked anything - so the whole audience thought maybe I had a special power.  (sorry - just gotta chuckle here).  THEN he told me to hold the rods at a slight downward angle and lo and behold they quit moving.  I didn't ask the spirits any questions - felt kinda foolish standing there with those rods.  But I did notice when I barely, almost inperceptably moved the rods where they were more perpendicular to the floor that they moved again. 

So, here's my take on those rods.  The are metal rods sitting in a wooden cup (think skinny straw inside a slightly larger wooden straw with a closed bottom).  They hit the bottom of the cup, so any movement can be caused by barely moving the cups.  IF the rods were suspended in a open bottom wooden holder then my take would be different.  But right now I'm thinking it mostly smoke and mirrors.

If you come to Gettysburg and do the ghost tours - then I hope you get out of it what you want - for me I won't be spending any money on them.  Now the history walks, with people dressed in period garb ARE worth the money.

Oh, one more thing.  The spot where I'm parked is supposed to be THE most haunted spot in this campground.  There was woman called Peggy Noel that was beheaded in a carriage accident and her head fell in the creek I'm parked beside and they never found it.  She was buried headless.
 
I'll keep you informed if Peggy decides to visit me.

Playing catchup

Looks like December 2013 was my last post.  Here it is April 28, 2014. 

When I left Oklahoma a few weeks ago, my friend encouraged me to begin writing posts again.  So, here it is, a recap of 4 months and about 6,000 miles.

In January, I took a Cartooning class at Campbell Folk School.  I gave a class voucher to a friend of mine, and she took a felt shoe making class.  It was good to be there at the school and to see a friend I hadn't seen  in a few years.  I was also able to visit a former student who is actually a profession leather worker only she works on hard leather - saddles, chaps and chinks for cowboys. 

I then went to visit Karen and family in Maryland.  I was due to teach a Cherokee Double Walled Basket class on February 8 then I was supposed to go to Tahlequah OK to teach some classes to the Cherokee.  On February 8 it started snowing.  And for weeks it either snowed or sleeted or iced for a couple weeks, keeping me snowed in.  Finally, the last weekend of February it was warm enough to dig down to the drive way and I high tailed it out of there.  I don't ever want to be in Maryland in Jan/Feb again!

I went to Oklahoma, having secured a work camping job at Marval resort in Gore Oklahoma.  Man, what a mistake that decision was.  Not only did the Cherokee not advertise the classes in time for me to teach in March, but the manager of the RV park was a real tyrant.  in one week the Assistant Managers  and another couple walked off the job.  I gave my 2 weeks notice and found a job at the Gettysburg Campground in Gettysburg, since I wasn't making any money teaching, and didn't want to stay in Gore.

I got to Gettysburg Easter weekend and had a great time with Karen and Sara/Chrlotte, then on Easter Sunday Chris and them came up again.  We ate hotdogs, smores and the kids had a great time hunting eggs and playing on the play ground.  I like my job here.  The owner is a little high strung, but he and I get along pretty well.  I hope to be here until the middle of October when I leave to go teach at Campbell, then I'll go back to Campbellsville, KY to work another season at Amazon.

So, there it is, in a few paragraphs.  I'll try to write more - we'll see how it goes.

Cock-a-Doodle Danged Rooster

I am settled in at the Green River Stables RV Park.  I've worked a couple 5 hours shifts at Amazon and am a little sore and a lot tired.  I try to stay away unjil at least 1 am since in 2 weeks I'll have to be up till 3 am.  

Let me tell you about the Rooster. The place I'm staying not only has horses, it has a loud, obnoxious rooster that travels with 2 red feathered hens. The other morning, at 7:30 he crowed right under my window. So, I get up, grab my broom at head out into the morning to shoo chickens. It was raining but I still shoo'd them away. They went 2 trailers over and continued to peck and crow under a 5th wheel. I took all I could of that and again went to shoo them further away. I was whispering - shoo and get gone and other things to them (whispering because a lot of my neighbors work nights and were asleep). So, the hens and rooster went out into the pasture. I figured they were far enough away and wouldn't bother me again. (I was wrong) And then the horses notice me and started walking up to me, so I decided that I couldn't look any more foolish to stand in the rain petting the horses than I could whispering at chickens while chasing them with a broom.

They came back once today. I got after them with a long stick and they never returned.

The RV park owners know they have a lot of day sleepers. This rooster replaces another that died recently. It too had the reputation for crowing near the campers.

Tomorrow, if the rooster wakes me, I will go look at the 5 other approved parks and possibly consider moving. I'm a very light sleeper and when I start 10 hour days, do not want some danged rooster crowing under my window.

Amazon here I come

I start my 3 month stint with Amazon tomorrow.  I'm staying herehttp://www.greenriverstables.com with wide open lots with grass and trees.  Its a country setting, and directly across the drive way is an entrance to the 28 miles of walking trails.  The green river is nearby though I've been too busy to go look at it yet.

I've got a new hitch on the van since adding the air stocks raised the rear of the van which should make pulling the trailer easier.

The new brakes on the trailer need adjusting as they are a little grabby.  Made the 100 mile drive through the NC/TN mountains just a tad more - uhhmm - exciting?

But I made it here just fine and am glad to be in one place for 3 months.  (Did I really say that?)

New shoes for baby

I was heading to Bartlesville, a town 25 miles away to buy new tires.  My friend, Miya, and I have decided the rear tires have lots of thread left and so I only need to buy 2. 

Did you know Wal Mart will only sell you the size tires that are in their book.  Mine are bigger and they won't sell me the same size, but of course I could still buy 4 new ones of the smaller size.

Nope.  Went to Sears, sign on window said they open at Noon.  It was 10 am so I perused the aisles at K Mart and Goodwill.  Went back to Sears and see a different sign - The service center is not even open on Sunday! 

So, when they call to tell me to come pick up the Trailer, I'll stop by and buy the 2 tires.  IF they won't sell me the size I want then there are a few more tire places around.  I just wanted to stick with a national chain just in case I have problems.

So baby will just have to wait a few more days for her new shoes.

Has it really been that long?

In my last post I was on my way to Maryland to see the family and volunteer at the Common Ground on the Hill festival.  By volunteering I was able to take a couple classes.  The first was a drawing class entitiled everyone can draw - HAH!  Not me.  I also took a basket making class and made 2 beautiful baskets which I gave to my daughter. 

I stayed almost the whole month of July and I got to see my daughter, 3 granddaughters and son in law quite a bit while there.  Karen and the girls and I even went on a 2 day camping trip to a state park.  Had a wonderful time camping with them. 

After Maryland I went to North Carolina to teach at Campbell Folk School.  I love that place!

Then I drove to Missouri to help my friend, Mark and Annie while they ran the Floraculture portion of the Missouri State Fair.  They have a disabled son and my "job" was to be there after the day nurse left and cook him supper.  My good friend Bob is working there so I got to visit with him as well. 

On my way to Oklahoma to make a doctor's appointment, my van overheated and blew the tranny near Carthage MO.  I hobbled into Carthage and called Coach Net (AAA type club for RVers) for a tow to an RV park because at the same time I came down with an infection and for 3 days had a 102 degree fever.  The tow truck drive didn't hook up my trailer properly before towing it and I was worried it might have caused brake damage, but was too sick to care at the time.  I finally left Carthage 4 days later and headed to Claremore, OK to have the tranny fixed (replaced) by a trusted mechanic. 

So, with a new tranny I decided to have the brakes on the TT looked at by an RV repair shop.  Yep, sure enough, towing the trailer with the break-away switch pulled caused the brakes to wear out.  I needed new brakes, drums, the whole 9 yards.  

Yesterday, I taught 10 Cherokee's how to make Cherokee Pucker Toe Moccasins and will be leaving Oklahoma in a few days after the brakes are fixed and the TT is safe to pull.
Whew - that's a lot of stuff.  I'll write more often - no really I promise!!!